Retreat Weekend!
- Posted by under Work
- Sunday March 30th, 2008
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This weekend we had a ladies retreat here in Jos for any female serving in this area, and there were over 70 women who came! It was an amazing experience, and we had a ton of fun. There was a lady who flew in from Canada to help with everything and she brought 7 bags of supplies! Not to mention $3000 worth of stamp making materials for cards, and a Starbucks coffee bar WOW!!! One of the ladies who organized everything is a gourmet chef and we got to reap the benefits from her amazing menu! It was a great escape from the chaos and the best part was that it was 3 minutes from my house! I ended up staying the night on Saturday because we were up until 3 am making cards…it was INCREDIBLE!!!!
WOW, what an amazing break!!!! I had so much fun just relaxing, swimming, and hanging out with friends. I went on a little 4 day excursion to Abuja and had a total out of Africa experience. I could have been in the Bahamas, swimming at the Hilton and eating amazing food. The best part was that we stayed in these sweeeet apartments for free, because we are missionaries!!! How awesome is that!
I finally found time to go on an adventure to search out a coffeeshop and find some great wireless internet. So, I can show you the long awaited pictures that I’ve taken so far. Obviously, I can’t post all of them and I haven’t actually taken as many as I should have but I’ll post a few. Picture #1: you know you’re in Oklahoma when…I spent a day hanging out with my cousin who lives about an hour outside of the city. Her family is really into cowboy/western stuff. The huge amounts of boots and hats just made me smile.
The rest of the pictures are from the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I finally made it there and I was really proud of myself that I didn’t get lost and actually found it on my own 
It’s actually an incredible sight. Smack dab in the middle of the city, it’s almost like a small park. There’s a “pool” of water in the middle, one “survivor” tree that was the only one to actually survived the bombing. On the far side of the memorial is a huge open space with one chair for every person that was killed in the bombing. The chairs actually all have names engraved on them. It was a pretty incredible sight. I’m sure these pictures don’t do justice to the actual memorial, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like. Across the street from the memorial is a statue called “And Jesus Wept.” I’ll make this my last picture, but I just thought it was so powerful to see the Jesus wept statue with the entrance to the memorial in the background. You can even see part of the wall where people have hung things to remember those they have lost. You may not be able to read the inscription on the entrance, but it says, “We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.”
Today is my Dad’s birthday, and if I don’t get a chance to get a hold of him, Happy Birthday Dad!
We have been in China for about 3 weeks now. And there are three things that I have noticed. Given they may be sweeping generalities, but nonetheless they are very interesting and different things that you guys might want to here.
A) All Chinese, no matter what their occupation, sell their merchandise the same way. We have done most our shopping at Chinese markets. The markets are huge buildings that usually have 4 or 5 floors jam packed with booths similar to a swap market. As you walk down these long aisles of booths packed with the same stuff each and every one of the merchants, in their funny English accents, yell the same things:
“Hey handsome, I give you good deal!â€
“Want bag, we have bag, buy one for your mother, buy one for your girlfriend!!â€
“O we friends, I give you good price.â€
“You speak Chinese, I give you best price.â€
We then have to haggle for our prices and they offer us an outrageous price, and when we drop lower they argue that we are “breaking their heart†or that they “won’t get any money for food or ice-cream.†It is an overall tiring experience. We shop on our days off of class and are usually out for the whole day. We would not have these things in America because they are not convenient. It’s not a one-stop shop, nor is it a “convenience†market at all. At the end of the day with our sore feet and tired bodies, we got really good deals, but it definitely cost more than money.
And when I mean everybody sells stuff like that I mean most people, even if you don’t go to the market. Even if you go to the video stores or the street vendors, they all yell out what they have and hold it up for you. It’s funniest at the places where they don’t speak English, because they usually grab something, anything, and start talking about it like you want to buy it. This might be something that you have no desire to buy and for that matter even to look at it and when you say no thank you or “bu yao xie xie†they pick up something else, or point to, completely random and definitely not what your looking for. It is very funny at times, but you can’t say that they don’t work hard.
B) Chinese food is a lot better her then it is in the states. There is no such thing, as wonton soup, kung pao chicken, or chop suey for that matter, just like how in Mexico there are no chalupas, gorditas, or nachos bell grandes. Chinese food here does not make me puke like the food at home, nor does it come in those paper boxes. We go to restaurants about every night, because they are very cheap and we try new things quite often. We haven’t been too crazy with the food, mostly sticking to Korean, Muslim, and Chinese cuisines, no scorpions yet. A lot of times our group wants to order the same thing, and that’s getting kind of old, but over all the food is not what I expected, plus I’m getting pretty good at using chop sticks.
C) The air is very dirty in China. In Beijing, there is rarely a day when you can see the sun. It is very smoggy, and very dusty. The weather here is really, really dry too. I mean, when you wake up your nose and throat are like the Gobi desert. It’s not that they don’t have people cleaning it up, they do, lots of them, it’s just that there are so many people here. More people means more trash, cars, and pollution. There are about 20 million people here. That’s about 5 times the population of Auckland where we stayed at earlier. Everywhere is busy, and everywhere there is traffic. The busses are packed, the subways are packed, and the trains are packed. It is really a phenomenon. There are people everywhere.
That’s a few things that I wanted to share with you about China. During these few weeks I have been soaking up the culture, as well as soaking up all the homework I have to do. China is the hardest in terms of workload. We have about a few days of week that we don’t have class most of the day and those are the days we go out to the markets and things. I wish to see the Chinese countryside, but I don’t think we’ll be able to.
We went to a Chinese university (one of the most respected engineering schools in China) and talked to the students in their English class. It was really fun, because they were so enthusiastic about talking to us and asking us how America was. Last Friday, we invited them over for a party where we sung songs and danced. It was definitely a cultural experience I know they had a good time, because they never wanted to leave. We talked and played games, for about 5 hours. I think we are going to do it again later.
We have a month left in China and I will write again soon because there are many things going on and I am learning a lot. (Such as how to write in Chinese, very hard)
here are the pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013331&l=b0229&id=62401250
Thanks for Reading,
This past week has been incredibly busy. I doubled my total amount of interpreting hours just in one week! Just this week I’ve interpreted or observed a number of different types of doctors/hospital visits, a few different schools and even an international convention. The convention was the most intense because it consisted of over 15,000 people and went on for SO many hours with such intensity that it was a challenge to keep up my energy to interpret it accurately. Saturday I pulled out all the stops and reverted to the use of an energy drink. I’m so scared of those but I’d gotten my hands on one that didn’t have the crazy amounts of sugar only 4900% daily value of B12. I was very scared to try it, but I think it may have helped a bit. (Though I stretched it out through the whole day so it was less intense)
There’s been talk around the agency about what would happen if I moved back here in the fall. I really don’t know what to do with that information. It scares me a little bit, but it boosts my confidence that they’d even consider hiring me. I guess I’ll just keep praying and see what happens. I’m sure that if God wants me back here, He’ll make it clear.
Lately, I’ve been getting more involved in the house church here in the area of music. Twice now I’ve helped out by playing piano and I’ve been part of a small “choir” to sing for Palm Sunday and Easter. This past Sunday after church I had the exciting opportunity to see my sister! I was hanging out in the city with one of my good friends from church and she was traveling through on her way back to Kansas from Texas. So, we were able to meet her and her friends for a few minutes at a Sonic. It was fun to see her and have her meet one of my friends from here too. I think they both enjoyed meeting each other.
Side note: I had the Braum’s experience the other day and absolutely LOVED it! I wish those were all over the country. For any Indiana people: Braum’s is this amazing ice cream/produce/meat store. All the products come directly from one farm that grows all their own feed, does all their own processing, etc. So, all the products are extremely fresh! It’s amazing!
I apologize for the lack of pictures. Due to my current internet situation, I can’t upload pictures here at the house. I have to go to the library and I haven’t had opportunity to do that lately. Because this week is spring break for so many people, it will hopefully be a little slower. I’ll try to get pictures up as soon as I can.
Aloha ke Akua! God is love!
The trip to Hawaii was one of the best times of my life. I don’t say that lightly, I really mean that. I won’t expand right now, but to put it simply…God used the time in Hawaii to lift me from the saddness and heaviness that I’ve felt for the past several months. I feel so free now. There is victory in Jesus!
We sang the Doxology a lot while we were there and it describes my feelings:
Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
So here’s a couple pictures.
So here’s the classic Hawaii Shot. This is actually Pearl Harbor.
And this is how happy the whole trip made me. These are my friends Jenny and Sara.
We just finished a unit on Kites and Wind, so today we tested out the kites we made on the soccer field!
Last Friday we had our elementary field day, and it was a blast. We start meeting with our teams at the beginning of the year and every student looks forward to it from the first day of school. The teams are completely random and have students from every grade on them. We came up with a really creative name since our color was red…yeah the Red Heads, hahaha….so when i was making hte poster, i asked them how they wanted me to do the hair and they were FLAAAAMES!!! yeah we are going to burn everybody, I was like eeeeaasy!! hahaha. We ended up getting 3rd place along with 3 other teams:)
A few weeks ago I had the words to this song running through my head:
“Use me here, where I am. I’m not gonna pray anymore that you’ll change your plans despite my fear I place me life in your hands. The future can wait, tomorrow might be too late, Jesus, use me here.”
It seemed to be fitting considering the new place and how unsure I was of how everything would work out. Today I was thinking about all the ways God has used me already. I’m sure I don’t know most of them but there have been a few really interesting “God conversations” with people at work. It’s been really cool to try to get to know people just by listening. I don’t think that it’s my place to be preachy at all, but sometimes I think people just need somebody to listen and if you genuinely care about them it’s amazing how much they’ll tell you.
The combination of two books has really been making me think. First, a book I finished a few weeks ago, “A New Kind of Christian” and second, a book that I’m just starting, “Repenting of Religion”. The combination of both of them has really been amazing. The first one made me think a lot about the box that I have put God in or the rules that I have established for no reason. True faith and living it out is so much more than organized religion. Sometimes I think the rules we set up as part of our religion only put God in a box and make it more difficult for us to really understand.
The second book is about replacing judgment with the Love of God. While talking with some co-workers I was amazed at how much we tended to talk about rules. What was acceptable, what was not, who was accepted at church, who was not… The whole thing made me sad. What happened to love? What happened to just loving each other as we allow the love of God to flow through us and letting God handle the judgment? I know we can’t accept everything wholeheartedly, there have to be some rules…but why is it so hard to get beyond rules and simply LOVE? I think that’s what God wants from us more than anything: not to judge each other, exclude each other, pass judgment on each other, but to love. That’s my soapbox.
In other news, this week has been fairly interesting as far as interpreting. I still wish I could be actually interpreting more and observing less but I’ve got to observe some really interesting situations. It’s sometimes hard to keep everything confidential especially when I get back from work and Moses and Sadie want to know what I did that day, but I’m learning how to process things on my own so I don’t feel the need to spill all the confidential information
I haven’t visited the Oklahoma City Memorial yet, but it’s on my list of things to do. I tried to go the other day but it’s right downtown with lots of one-way streets and very little parking and I got confused and fed up so….I’ll try again later.
Sorry it has been so long since my last post. I have been traveling around three countries and am now in Beijing, China! Almost three weeks ago we left BCNZ. The last few days at the college were pretty stressful. We had to have everything done for our ministry class, we had our last two Chinese classes, and I had a 350 page book to read. I wanted to get as much work done so that I could enjoy traveling around the rest of New Zealand and
Australia.
We spent the first few days traveling from place to place. We left the college on Wednesday morning. We traveled for six hours to get to Taupo. This would be our week of extreme sports. We were staying at another sort of camp ground where we had cabins with bunks. The place was really nice. There was a pool, a playground with trampoline, and a jumping pillow. This might be the most exciting thing ever. The jumping pillow is basically a giant inflatable pillow that you can jump on. It was pretty exciting, I felt like I was five again. The boys started getting a little rough so we migrated over to the pool, it felt like bath water. That night we jumped, swam, and played mafia. It was a really fun and a good bonding time for our group.
The next morning I had to wake up to make breakfast. It was Valentines Day (in NZ), I wore red and white. This would be the day of sky diving and bungee jumping. 14 people from out group took the plunge out of a plane. I was not one of them. I really wanted to; after all, extreme sports are my life! However, I am not made of money and had to pick and choose what I wanted to do. Also, my mom had a “bad feeling†about it, so I opted to jump off a bridge instead…much safer. That morning we were at the sky diving place for three hours. It was a long time to wait, but it was fun to watch my friends take the deadly plunge and parachute back down to earth. Everyone survived! It was a grand time. After that we made a quick stop at good ol’ Mickey D’s!!! Great in every country! They have this berry banana smoothie that is absolutely delicious!
We then went back to the campsite where we got ready to go bungee jumping. This was going to be my big event for the day. It turns out the Bungee jumping place is only 10 minutes from the place we were staying at. It is a walk way that goes out over a river/lake/pond/thing. It drops 153 feet before you take dip into the water. The platform is anchored using a 52 ton block. I would be taking this dive with my best friend Hannah. We told everyone that we wanted to go first (we didn’t think we would do it if we had to watch everyone else go first). So we signed up, paid our fees, and went to get in line. I was fine until we got onto the platform. Now usually I am not scared of heights, but it is a very different thing when you know you are about to jump off of the very high structure. The moment I set foot on the platform looking out over the river, I began to shake. As we sat and got our ankle harness on, I engaged in some minor small talk with the man who held our fate in his hands. He told us that the longer that we stood on the edge, the harder it would be to jump. SO….he said when you get to ledge, look up, smile for the camera, and then I go 4,3,2,1 and you will just lean over the edge….simple….ha. So we stood there, our hands around one another’s waste, counted to four, and plunged. It was a crazy feeling, I can’t really explain it. We screamed so loud I thought my lungs would give out. Then the screams turned into“out of breath†laughter. It was an amazing feeling. They lowered us into a boat that took us to shore. The experience was amazing, I can’t even think of a word that describes the experience. It was funny, when we went to pay for our pictures and video the lady asked us if they could use our video for their “scream cam.†We had to sign a release form for it and they told us it would be up in a few weeks. What can I say, we scream well! I bought a shirt, it says, “Why live on the edge when you can jump off it.†Overall, great Valentines Day, one I will never forget!
Alright, extreme day number 2! We started the morning by making our way over to the Te Puia cultural centre. We learned all about the Maori culture. So far we have seen evidence of the culture in many different ways. We see the people (some of whom have the Maori tats), they have Maori artifacts in every souvenir shop, and we have heard about the haka everywhere we go. We were going to have a tour of the centre and then would get to sit in on a special cultural performance. I was really excited for this because I have wanted to see the Haka this whole trip. The tour was really interesting and I learned a lot about the culture. We got to see the boiling mud and the Pohutu Geyser. This is the largest geyser in
New Zealand. We also got to see a kiwi! Kiwis are New Zealand’s native birds. They are little brown flightless animals that are nocturnal. The Kiwi was a lot larger than I expected. It was exciting to see this animal that we have heard so much about. The performance was really interesting. They performed a few traditional songs for us with dance and music accompaniment. The dancers used these white balls attached to a string with a tassel at the end in their dance. They made a “hitting†noise when they caught them. They invited any girl to come on stage and try it out. A bunch of us girls got on stage and they helped us use them. It was really fun to give this a try. I probably looked like a fool and could not catch that little white ball. I actually kept hitting the girl next to me in the butt….awkward. Next was the moment I had been waiting for, the Haka. It was everything I hoped it would be! After they were done they invited any men to come on stage…none of our guys got up, I was slightly disappointed in them. All of us girls decided we would record it and then learn it later. I have Maori soul.
This was only the beginning to our day. The second half of the day was devoted to all things extreme!!!! This included zorbing and luging. Zorbing is a newer sport (if could even call it that) where you get into a giant air and water filled ball and roll down a hill. Ahh, zorbing, just thinking about it makes me laugh. When we got to the zorb place the price was a little higher than we expected. It cost 44 dollars to go down the hill once, wet, with two other people. Almost everyone who planned on going backed out. About seven of us girls decided to go. I planned to ride with Caron and Hannah. We signed up and got our zorb “start: certificate;†As we left our group all we could say to them was, “zorb on!†We then took a van to the top of the hill. As we waited they were blaring music, the song “clumsy†by Fergi came on, great motivational music for this activity. Finally it was out turn. Our kiwi zorb instructor put some water in our zorb ball. If we would have done it dry we would have probably killed each other. He then told us to jump into the ball through a small opening, head first…superman style. Hannah jumped in and got stuck. This is when the laughter began. Once all three of us got in the ball he told us to stand up and push the ball forward to get rolling down the hill. This proved to be quite difficult. We finally got rolling down the hill. The tumble felt like it lasted a good two or three minutes; however we probably only rolled for about 45 seconds. It was the most hilarious experience of my life. It is hard to describe…it was just funny. We were screaming/laughing the whole way down. When we got to the bottom they finally managed to stop us and then we slid out of that same small hole, sort of like the zorb ball was giving birth to us. Zorbing was probably one of my favourite things so far, just HILAARIOUS!
But wait the day was not over. That night we went to go luging. Luging can be considered an extreme sport and can be very dangerous. With this course you take a sort of cable car up a huge mountain and then ride back down in a sled apparatus. This was a great activity because we didn’t have to pay for it! We got to have two rides down. On the hill you could go as fast or as slow as you wanted. You had a break and steering wheel, so you were in complete control. It was so fun! I tried to go as fast as I could without dying. Once you got to the bottom you got to ride a chair lift back up, it was like skiing!
After we left the luge place we got ice cream. I got the flavour, Kiwi Rainbow Warrior….wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into, but it was truly scrumptious. Tasted like candy/cake and looked like the make-believe food in the movie Hook! Yum.
Whim Day!!!! February 17 was whim day…aka the day that we did not have any set plans so we decided to “whim†it! Now usually I am a very organized person, who likes to have things planned out; however, I was excited for this day! We began by leaving Rotorua and headed for Whaighi. On the way we first stopped in Tirau. Tirau was a cute little town where all the store signs were made of tin. There were also several shops and statues that were made fully of tin. Our group decided to stop because we saw a large statue of the good shepherd. It was really special. We got out and took a picture and then took a picture next to the giant dog statue, which was actually used as a building as well and a sheep caf ©. We hung around the caf © for a little bit and Hannah and I went out on a whim and bought this delicious chocolate brownie.
As we prepared to leave we loaded in the vans and got ready to leave for Matamata. This is where some of our group planned on going through the Lord of the Rings tour. I contemplated doing this, because I am a hard core LOTR fan and am a geek in every way; however, I just couldn’t shell out the 50 dollars. However, we had a slight upset in our plans. Brent, our fearless leader, was driving the first van and Matt was following. Somewhere along the way, we lost him…And couldn’t find him for an hour or two. We ended up driving all the way to Matamata and just hoped that he would find his way. Eventually they showed up and we got to eat. A few people went on the Lord of the Rings tour so the rest of us had a few hours to kill. Since it was whim day we decided to go out on a whim and go looking for some sheep. The Lord of Rings films were partially shot on the Alexander family farmland. Luckily the Alexander’s have a sheep farm very close to where they have the LOTR tours. We drove out to their farm, which actually was a tourist spot (we were not just gunna walk up to their front door). There was a little caf © and……..many many many sheep! It was lovely. We asked if we could pet some sheep and he said sure, so we went over to the fence and I made friends with five or six sheep. Sheep love me, I can’t help it. They must have known that I felt a connection with them. Then, one of the Alexander sons went across the road and herded over about 75 lambs into a pen right by us. He needed to give them all medicine. He was very kind and down to earth. He answered all our questions and let us watch him work. I love sheep, they make my heart smile.
After we left the farm and soaked our hands in hand sanitizer we continued on our way toWaighi
Beach. This would be one of our last stops in New Zealand. We got to our hostile (which was right across the street from the ocean) and the dinner team began working on supper. This weekend my room smelled like onions…all the time. In these hostiles we had to cook all of our food in the room kitchens, and for some reason my room was the onion room….at every meal. The first day they cut onions and then the next day they saut ©ed onions and now, I smell like onions.
Besides the onion issue, this is the nicest hostile we have stayed at. They have lots of cool things to do. They have a really nice pool and hot tub, a jumping pillow (not as good as in Taupo), a giant chess set (if only I played), and a little river running all the way through the camp ground. This river happens to be filled with none other than….eels….tons and tons of eels. They have signs over the bridges that give info about their “pet†eels. They give a list of foods that you can feed the eels…apparently eels prefer MEAT…who knew!!!! I’m sorry, but when I think “pet†eels usually don’t come to mind. It was weird and scary and reminded me of the little mermaid…lots of things on this trip remind me of the little mermaid. I decided that I am scared of water animals.
The rest of the night was devoted to swimming and phase 10. PHASE 10!!!! I have a love/hate relationship with this game. It is so fun to play and yet, whenever I play I get very angry. Usually by the end of the game I am fuming and want to punch everyone I am playing with in the face. It is just one of those games. It’s terrible….and yet wonderful…I’ll probably play it again tomorrow.
The next morning I woke up and discovered I was ABANDONED! I woke up and there was no one in the room. I was so confused; apparently everyone woke up and went to the pool…grrr. Oh well, I used the time to work on my kite runner questions. Once people began to come back we waited around for lunch for about 4 hours…apparently the noodles wouldn’t boil.
After lunch I went to the pool and finished my questions. Unfortunately today was overcast and little chilly….and by chilly I mean 68 degrees.
After we left Waighi we drove into Auckland. As a finale to our trip to New Zealand we went to eat lunch in the sky tower. The sky tower is a high priced restaurant in the top of the tower where you pay for the food and the view. Brent told us that we each could spend 30 dollars. Most of my table ordered the tortellini. We put our money together so that we could get a few desserts. The food was really good, not sure if it is 20 dollars worth, but still, it is very filling. One neat feature of the sky tower is that it rotates. It was really funny, at one point our waiter was taking our order and began to move away from our table…he was on the part that did not rotate…I laughed…out loud. The desserts were really good. We ordered chocolate curd, this flan stuff, and a cheese platter with a hone comb side. I love cheese.
I finished up some souvenir shopping and then we left to move in to our last New Zealand Hostile. We moved in packed and then drove back into Auckland to get some dinner. We had the choice of fish and chips or kebabs. I got both!!! I ordered fish and chips and then got to finish of Hannah’s Kebab. We ate on Mt.Eden, for one last time. Before we left Ashley, Sarah, and I tried to pet a cow. We were not successful, apparently cows are pretty skittish….We got close though. It was sad to think that we would be leaving New Zealand. I loved New Zealand but felt ready to move on and visit a new place. Luckily I knew I would not be leaving the warm weather.
February 20, 2008…..it felt like the longest day ever. We woke up at 2:45 am….accidentally. We were actually supposed to wake up a bit earlier considering that we were supposed to leave at 3. We drove to the airport, and boarded our plane that would arrive at 7 in the morning Australia time. When we got to the airport we spent a good hour and a half trying to get through customs. We finally met Rob. The plan for the morning was to wait to meet Joe, and then wait to get the vans…a lot of waiting. We played some card games and then eventually I fell asleep on the concrete. When I awoke we loaded up our three 8 passenger vans and drove to Southern Cross College. Now for some reason, I was in a terrible mood today. I was so tiered that all I wanted to do was sleep. I am the sort of person who can get a little irritable when I don’t sleep. After I unpacked my stuff I fell asleep for 3 hours…woke up….fell asleep again for another 1-2 hours…and then I think I fell asleep again. I was just so tiered! By the time dinner came I was starved….which definitely did not help the bad mood situation. After dinner I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, and fell asleep. Finally an end to my very long and tiring day.
Rob then informed us that the next few days would be busy. We woke up this morning and started going. We first walked around Paramatta and later in the day we went to a near by nursing home. I love nursing homes. Back home a few girls and I would go on Sunday mornings to visit our local nursing home. We would have manicure parties and teas. I gained so much from those Sunday morning visits. We were introduced as a singing group. We sang some songs for them and let them request a few of their Aussie favourites. After we sang for the group of 20 or so, we sat down with them and talked with the people. It was amazing to hear their stories. The lady that I chatted with was named Bailey. Honestly, I am not sure what we were talking about for that hour and a half, but I knew that she appreciated my presence. I told her about our group, Bethel, the Trip, and my experience in New Zealand. I also tried to ask her as much as I could about her life. I only could pick up a few phrases of what she was saying, she was rather incoherent; however, she never stopped smiling at me and I couldn’t stop smiling at her. As I looked around at our group I noticed that everyone seemed to by truly enjoying their time. I think that we can learn so much from those who are older than us. I know that we benefited from the visit just as much as they did. Before we left we sang a few more songs and then said goodbye to our news friends.
That night we also made a trip to downtown Sydney. Unfortunately it rained a little, but by the end of the night the sky was clear. We parked, what seemed to be 5,000 miles away from the harbour. It was a good long walk, but when we got there, it proved to be worth the wait. The opera house was absolutely gorgeous. With the moon out, I was able to get some amazing pictures. It felt so crazy being there, I felt like I was in a postcard. As we walked around I noticed how dressed up everyone was. Everyone seemed to be on their way to some impressive party or club. Lets just say the night life in Sydney=wild! We got some Mc D’s ice cream on our way out, I can’t lie; I even felt underdressed in the McDonalds. Crazay!!!!
The last two days have been pretty eventful. We went to Bondi Beach. There is actually a TV show called Bondi Rescue. I was hoping that it would be my big time TV d ©but, my big break. It was a beautiful day and the waves were amazing. However, we were told that we had to be very careful of the undertow. On bondi there seemed to be lots of Speedos, lots of nudity, and lots of Asians. Seriously, men wearing Speedos were everywhere you looked and apparently it is socially acceptable to take off your bathing suite top….but only if you happen to be over the age of 50….yeah. Hannah and I walked around for a while and then a few girls and I rented boogie boards. Trying to boogie board in these crazy waves proved to be more difficult that I anticipated. Any time I thought I was getting up on the wave, it would pull me under and I would swallow half the ocean. After getting beaten up for a good hour, Reed, Hannah and I went into town to look around at the surf shops. Later at the college everyone realized how incredibly burnt they got during the day. Ryan Wertz was the colour of a stop sign, it was awesome. After dinner I attempted to do homework, but opted to watch Monster’s Inc. and Finding Nemo (we are in Australia after all).
The next day we went downtown. We were going to go to the zoo but would not have had enough time so we walked around the city instead. A bunch of us went to a Chinese market. Now this is not a market that sells Chinese things…this is a market run by Chinese people that sell Australians souvenirs for really cheap. It was pretty sweet. I bought a t shirt for 7 dollars. I also went to a wig stand and tried on a sweet red wig; however, when the ladies realized that I did not actually want to buy the wig they got upset….the wig women mean business. After the market we walked back through town towards the harbour. We had an hour and a half before we had to meet the group. We stopped at a comic book store on the way…I really like super heroes….I’m a bit of a dork. We then got a bite to eat and started on our way back to the harbour….ONE PROBLEM….we seriously underestimated how far away way we were. As much as we walked, we never seemed to get closer. Reed and I ended up having a speed walk-off-a-thon…I won. However, we were 40 minutes late…our bad!
The next week turned out to be filled with highs and lows.
High-we got to visit Hillsong United, an amazing experience.
Low-the cd’s at Hillsong were about 15 dollars more expensive at Hillsong then back home.
High-We got to go to
Canberra, the capital and visited the war museum.
Low-While at the war museum we had the longest tour of all time. Interesting but long.
High- Brandon, Bethany, Rachel, Hannah, and I went around the abandoned
Canberra and took sweet action photos!
LOW- While taking those sweet action photos…my camera broke…beyond present repair.
High- I saw a kangaroo
Low-It was actually on the side of the road…dead. Whoops!
High- We got to spend our last few days at the beach.
Another HIGH- I made summer teams!!!!!!!! Huge praise!!!!!
Those are just a few…once we got to Colloary (our beach hostile) things seemed to be going pretty well. Our last day I went to the beach in the morning, boogie boarded, swam in the pool, and then played Warcraft for 2-3 hours. I have a problem, when playing video or computer games I usually end up becoming addicted. Jon and Reed are always playing warcraft. It is the predecessor to the game WOW. As a child I was deprived of video games, probably for good reason. I am not very good at computer games but sort of love them! It was a good bonding time with Reed, except for all the times he kept killing me…those were not good times. That night I ended up staying up until 2 am talking to Hannah and Brandon. These conversations are my favourite.
Our last day in Sydney we made plans to go to the Zoo. I was so excited. I heard that they had all the traditional Australian animals. I really wanted to see a koala, wallabies, wombats, a dingo, and a live kangaroo!!! I also heard they had komodo dragons. Komodo dragons are one of my greatest fears…I know that the chances of me dying by one are slim; however, I still fear them! I knew that this would be a great opportunity to face my fears! When we got down to the city, it began to rain! This meant no zoo; instead we went to the Sydney aquarium. I got to see fish, seals, the largest coral reef exhibit in the world, and I got to face another one of my fears…crocodiles. True it was in my cage and was posing no possible threat to me, but they still frighten me oh so much! We also saw an amazing shark exhibit. Sharks also scare me. However, I survived the aquarium and then ended up walking around town before we went back to the vans. That night we packed up, worked on hw, and got ready to say goodbye to
Australia. Tomorrow we would be in China.
Now I am in China. We had a long day of flying, but we are finally here. Half of us girls will be staying in the apartment and half of us are in the hotel. I think we have a really good group in the apartment. I chose the apartment; I wanted a more “homey†feel. It is also nice because we have internet and a kitchen. I will be fun times, I can tell!
Last night I went to bed with the intention of sleeping until 10 or 11, instead I was awoken at 7:30 by Hannah. She ran in our room (waking up the other 5 girls in our apartment) to tell me that we got an email telling us that we were both chosen to be RA’s in shupe!!! This has been something that I have been worrying about for a while. I am so glad that it worked out and that I can now start getting excited about it. However, after I was told this exciting news I could not get back to sleep. SO…I had lots of morning time to check my email and shower. The morning was going great, until I dropped my computer off my lap. Luckily the computer still works; however, the power cord no longer works. SO when my computer dies…it will be dead…forever. Yes, my camera and my computer went within the span of 5 days. I not only feel stupid, and irresponsible, but feel extremely depressed. AHHH!
Anyway I tried to not let it ruin my first day in China. Later in the day we went out to lunch and then had time to work on HW. Luckily I have amazing friends like Hannah who let me use their computer. I was able to get a lot of work done. Tomorrow we are going to fellowship, visit the temple of heaven, and are going to a pearl market. Overall, china is good, I am good, and this trip is pretty amazing!
p.s. i’ll try to post some pictures in the near future!
Sorry it has been such a long time. Since I last left off, we have traveled New Zealand and Australia. The internet has been patchy and I have been able to send blurbs of emails to my family at best. I am exhausted and worried that you might find this entry a little long. I have a lot to say and remember; so here it goes.
When I left of we were still in New Zealand. The Sunday before we started our big travel week, we went to a Nigerian Church. We met a man named Frank at the College we were staying at and he was from Nigeria. After a while we figured out that he had studied in China and was fluent in Chinese. Frank started teaching us Chinese in classes during the week, and one Sunday he invited us to his Church. He went to this branch of a Nigerian National Church. It was a really cool experience. It was totally different than anything I had come to expect and it definitely gave me a new perspective on things.
For Valentines Day, I was away from my valentine; and it made me miss home very much. As a solution we did so much on February 14th that I had little time to think about home. We were in this beautiful area of New Zealand called Lake Taupo. It was really clean and touristy (but not tacky; like Wisconsin Dells J). Lake Taupo was home to the adventure sports side of New Zealand. There were many extreme options to choose from and some of my teammates and I chose the most extreme. On February 14th I went skydiving…It was crazzzy. We found this place out in the middle of an open field and paid quite a hefty but worthy sum of money to jump out of an airplane at 12,000 feet. My instructor was a German named Alan, and he made me feel very comfortable strapped tightly to his chest. (I don’t know if I can ever say that again!). And when we fell for the solid 45 seconds I felt like…like…like no analogy could fit here with out sounding clich © and unworthy. I felt awesome. It is definitely worth doing. I would recommend it to anybody and Hope that I have the chance to do it again soon. (Or later like when I’m eighty like Barbara Bush.) The rest of the day paled in comparison. We had the option of Bungee jumping but to me that just seemed to dwarf my experience in the sky, and also I have done it before…in Wisconsin Dells, ironically. Later that night, still on my high from skydiving, I had to do our perfect pushups. That brought me down to earth, and in just enough time to go to sleep, and get ready for the next day. And because I missed it Happy Valentines to all the people I love and didn’t have a chance to tell.
The next day we stayed at this really nice campsite called Top Ten. We have stayed at four Top Ten campsites in New Zealand and they are all very nice and very cheap. It was planned out to be a relaxing day because we got or fill of excitement the day before. The campsite had a jumping pillow, and for those few of you out there who don’t know what a jumping pillow is, my heart feels for you, because a jumping pillow is joy. In the movie Heavyweights (proud owner) they have something called the blob, or a huge air filled pillow over the water, to those whom I feel even worse for because they haven’t seen Heavyweights. A jumping pillow is a ground version of the blob. It is sweet for all sorts of flips, jumps, bumps, and king of the hill matches. (And could be bought for the low low price of…I feel like I’m a salesman). It is so much fun that they cant have it in the U.S. because some little kids may be killed from fun overload or more commonly called a funplosion. This happened to many great things like, seesaws, jungle gyms and Leaps and Bounds. Jumping Pillow. I would come to New Zealand just for it: just for the danger, because danger is my middle name.
The rest of the day was spent reading for Multicultural lit, and swimming in the pool. I’m trying to get some homework done but there are just too many things going on.
We moved out early the next day to travel to our next destination, Rotorua. Rotorua is famous for its thermal pools and boiling mud pits. (Kind of like the Dante’s Peak just with out the volcano eruption) Our campsite was built on one of these hot grounds. Our water was heated by the thermal ground springs, our corn was cooked in a natural steam oven, and we had to watch out when we played football so that we don’t step into a boiling mud puddle and lose our leg. Even though it was on the beach, the beach was really trashy and not made for swimming, but if you dug into the sand deep enough the water near the shore was super hot; like a hot tub for you feet. We shopped in Rotorua and walked around it was really nice. The things I didn’t like were that there were a lot of old people or elderly as they are properly called (I felt like I was in Branson), and also all of Rotorua was smelly. The sulfur bubbling up from the pits smelled like eggs and blew throughout the town in the wind.
We went to a cultural site the next day and watched a demonstration of the Maori culture. The place was called Te Puia and there was a mock Maori village set up around a huge geyser. It was really neat to see how they lived and take part in their culture. They have this thing called the “Haka,†which is a war chant and dance. The national rugby team does it before the matches and it is really cool. The huge Maori men yell and stop their feet, sticking their tongues out and making their eyes wide. I would urge you all to try it right now and then go look at how tough you are in the mirror. The next day was Saturday, Matt, Jon, and I missed dinner because no body told me we were having it. After scrounging for food scraps we headed for Zorbing. (Sorry that I keep relating things to movies but I think that it helps people relate to what I’m talking about.) If every body had seen Operation Condor with Jackie Chan, they know what Zorbing is. Zorbing is when you roll down a hill in a big inflatable ball. I assumed it was a huge hill and we would roll forever but I was wrong. My anticipation was let down when we drove up to a small sledding hill, and I was further let down when I noticed that they had water inside the Zorb, therefore making it unable for you to topple and flip inside. It looked more like a waterslide with out the slide, as people just sat down and the ball rolled around them down the hill. Because of the water they just sat there and slipped with the ball. If any of this makes sense then you would understand why I didn’t want to drop 45 bones on it. I watched a few people from our group do it and even laid down as the Zorb rolled over me. Hey I went skydiving a few days ago, I did not chicken out, and it just looked kind of lame.
After Zorbing we went Luging on top of a ski mountain. That was fun, and I would pay lots of money to do it, but luckily this was one of the free things included in our trip. We had to ride a skyline or really nice chairlift up to the top of the mountain. There was a nice restaurant up there and some other stuff but we were there for the luging. We road a steam and curvy go-cart down the mountain, driving little scooters with bicycle handlebars. We controlled the speed and the turning so that meant I went pretty fast. It was incredibly fun. I would have just rather done that all day then gone to Zorb. We had two rides, and had to ride a chair lift back up to the top between rides. The rest of the evening spent driving around and more shopping. I had already bought my souvenirs so all this shopping wasn’t my idea. The guys are out numbered by the girls more than three to one, so that should explain it.
For our last few days in New Zealand we traveled to Waihi. On the way to our new campsite we participated in Whim Day. This was the day that we could do what ever we wanted if we saw it on the side of the road toward our destination. We stopped at a corrugated metal version of a shepherd, a restaurant/shop that was shaped like a sheep, and petted a sheep. Whim day was fun for the few people who choose these random activities, but for others, including myself, Whim Day seemed more hectic and rushed than I would have liked. We also went to Hobbition on that day. Hobbition is where the Lord of the Rings hobbit village was filmed. There are very few visible signs from the movie sets, but there is still a bus and walking tour you could take. The tour showed the remaining Hobbit holes, devoid of paint and decoration and the sites where things used to be set up. I went to the place, but I didn’t want to pay $60 for a tour. It was just cool to be there. As a nerd it was really neato to say that I was in Middle Earth, neato. We made our way to our new accommodations for the night. We stayed at another Top Ten site, with a jumping pillow and a really nice pool. There had just been a big motorcycle race the day before; the biggest one in New Zealand, and you could tell because our campsite was full of bikes and their respective bearded bikers. I don’t know if I told you this, but New Zealanders are not the nicest people. We have been to many different beaches and campsites and it always seemed that everybody had a chip on their shoulder. We were regarded as foreigners and harassed in front of our faces and behind our backs. But the funny thing was that at the campsite in Waihi the bikers were the nicest people we have met. Even the people at the college we stayed at were grouchy in comparison to the friendly and kind bikers. The bearded and tattooed men and women helped us cook and talked to us about the states. It was really amusing to me that these Harley businessman and other bikers were the nicest people we met in all of our 35 days in New Zealand. Just shows you can’t judge a book by its cover.
During our last day in New Zealand we just relaxed and chilled. We got ready to leave because our plane ride was at 3 in the morning. As we saw the last sunset in New Zealand I knew that I would remember these times for the rest of my life and reflected on all the things that I have done. We packed our bags and got ready to travel to Australia.
We arrived in Australia at eight in the morning. But we didn’t leave the airport until around 2 o’clock. We spend our first six hours in Australia waiting. It wasn’t a very good first impression. We played card games and took naps on the sidewalk. When our vans finally pulled up we were tired bored and sunburned.
We drove to another college to stay there for four nights. The college was kind of dumpy and there was an abundance of old smelling hallways and cockroaches. The people were friendly though. We made dinner and went to sleep.
The next day we took a walk around town and talked to people in the park. It was really nice and refreshing coming from the often-negative New Zealand. We visited a nursing home that afternoon and sang them some old songs they new. I talked to a man about how he grew up in Australia and worked as a lift mechanic during the war. He was married to his wife for more than 70 years. I don’t remember his name but I remember that he was 96 years old and didn’t look any older than 80. Then I talked to this old lady with a mustache and I think she was senile because she kept pointing and talking but I had no idea what she was saying. It was neat to talk to people who grew up in a totally different culture than I did.
We spent some time the next day in Sydney. It was really really nice and clean. Sydney has a cool mixture of old and new. The harbor was beautiful and the opera house was as cool as all the pictures. I really liked Sydney and it is definitely up there in my favorite places.
We went to Bondi Beach the next day. Bondi beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world. They even have a T.V. show made after it. It is a reality show of the lifeguards on the beach. We watched it one time in New Zealand and somebody died on the show, so we were kind of apprehensive about the trip. The beach was nice but the waves were crazy. They pulled and pushed and it was almost impossible to boogie board with the one I rented. We spent time on the beach and in the shops, and me Hannah and Chelsea were almost left behind. I like the beach but I prefer the mountains.
For the next few nights we headed to Canberra, the capital. Canberra is in the middle of Melbourne and Sydney and supposedly it is the capital because they couldn’t decide which of the other ones to make the capital. Not many people live there, just politicians and government workers. We made a trip to the National War Museum of Australia. It was really cool to see their perspective on the war. They had the shrine to the Unknown Soldier and a bunch of bombers and fighter planes. My Granddad would have loved it. In Australia we were rushed the whole time. We always had another place to be or a deadline to leave. That was my least favorite thing. Canberra was cool, but Sydney was better.
I saw a kangaroo on the car ride back…it was dead on the side of the road though.
I guess they are like deer there. I wonder if Australians come to the U.S. and look for deer as much as we looked for kangaroos.
For our last two days in Australia we stayed in a beach hostel in Colloroy. On the way to Colloroy we passed a sign for the town of Clontarf. For some reason I thought that was really, really funny and couldn’t stop laughing at that time. So if you don’t find the word Clontarf funny I guess you just had to be there. I watched There Will Be Blood with Daniel Day Lewis (he won the Oscar for it) it was really weird but he did a super good job. We spent the last days in Australia swimming, packing, and doing homework. I bought a towel, magnet, and patch in Australia, because everything was really expensive.
The next day we left for China.
And that’s where I am right now. Sorry for the length but I had to make up for lots of missed time. We are halfway through our journey and back in China. I am looking forward to this last leg the most, because it will be the most challenging and different. I hope you all are doing well back home, because I am doing fine here. I will hopefully write back sooner than I have been.
Here are the pictures.
http://bethelcollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012904&l=74427&id=62401250
Thanks for reading,
Reed
